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ChrisCo's Cow

Thanks. I wanted this thing done 7 years ago.

I'm actually shooting for a light shake down run at Tahuya sometime (probably late) February. I've still got a lot to do before that, though.

Any recommendations on where to get a rear drive shaft built? I'm somewhat expecting to call Tom Woods or High Angle, but I'd rather use a local shop if possible.
 
Thanks. I wanted this thing done 7 years ago.

I'm actually shooting for a light shake down run at Tahuya sometime (probably late) February. I've still got a lot to do before that, though.

Any recommendations on where to get a rear drive shaft built? I'm somewhat expecting to call Tom Woods or High Angle, but I'd rather use a local shop if possible.

Order from Tom.

I'm sure there are local, but all the local I've tried have been more money, and worse quality, and actually took longer to be available. Tom had mine in the mail the next day, and at my door in a couple.
 
Order from Tom.

I'm sure there are local, but all the local I've tried have been more money, and worse quality, and actually took longer to be available. Tom had mine in the mail the next day, and at my door in a couple.

I concur with this statement.

Nice build by the way. :awesomework:
 
Ritch at Driveline Service of Bellingham (360) 734-7828

He's my shaftman! :redneck:
 
The last shaft I got from Tom Woods was less than stellar. It had 15 - 20 weights all over it, some of those were stacked 3 deep. Also 2 zirks were stripped and I had to drill and re tap them. I wish I would have went local.
 
Nice build by the way. :awesomework:

Thanks! Is is one of my favorite hiding places lol

HidingPlace.jpg


...some of those were stacked 3 deep...

:eeek:

I'd build my own if I wanted this kind of quality. Just curious -- what was it for? Did you ask them WTF?
 
Thanks! Is is one of my favorite hiding places lol

HidingPlace.jpg




:eeek:

I'd build my own if I wanted this kind of quality. Just curious -- what was it for? Did you ask them WTF?


It was a short rear shaft for a TJ. I called them about it and they said that was normal for balancing. I was gonna have to pay shipping and let them determine if I got the shipping back once they loozed at it. They did say if it was balanced it would be on me for shipping both ways. It wasn't worth the bs. I fixed the zerks and ran it. It did always have a slight vibe at about 55-60 no matter how I set the pinion angle.

I will say I ****ed myself by ordering it through 4x4 group buy as I got a cheaper price than direct from Tom Woods. That added another point of bs in getting my concerns addressed. And it may have meant I got seconds or lower quality, not sure.

Long story short I will go local for drivelines in the future.

I'm trying to find a picture of it, but it was from 3 years ago and I'm not having any luck. Just my 2 cents and that might be all its worth.
 
It's been a while since I've updated this thread...not that I've done a whole lot since the last update...

Since my last update, I still haven't ordered a new rear driveshaft, nor have I finished the cage...but, I have gotten some work in on it here and there.


Shortly after my last post, I tried to get measurements for the rear driveshaft. The best I could do was lift the rear end with an engine hoist. I didn't trust the measurements...but the exercise was entertaining :D

20160124_163336.jpg


This shot was after lowering the hoist a bit to get the rear-driver side tire back onto the ground. The front was still firmly planted, but the rear is too light to allow full flex (there was still shaft showing on the rear shocks) :haha:

Through ^^ that ^^ process, I found that I have a bit of front fender trimming to do. Bugger -- I rather like the body lines on the front of this vintage Toyota.

When I'd turned the Cow around in the garage last (before measuring for the driveshaft), I hit just the wrong angle in the driveway. I found the shortcoming with the RCI 2161a -- The fuel pickup tube. Yeah, with a gallon or so of gas in the cell, there wasn't enough in there for the pickup tube to grab. The Cow was floundering in my own driveway... Not cool.

...so, I threw some Walbro's in there...

20160724_204115.jpg


They seem to be working, but I haven't had it out of the garage yet to see if they actually fix the problem.


Another thing that's annoyed me for years is having to climb into the bed with a funnel to pour gas in the cell. I really don't like wasting stuff, and completely replacing the filler "neck" that came with the RCI seemed like a waste. So, I ordered up some 1.75" fuel filler hose, and proceeded to try to massage the original filler cap/neck to fit. That was wasted effort. I then set out to hunt down an after market 1.75" filler neck setup... More wasted effort. After hacking up the original RCI filler neck in a futile attempt to create my own filler neck, I stumbled across a post that mentioned that the Jaz 45* neck had a "flapper" to prevent it from spilling fuel up the filler neck in the case of a rollover... That finally sold me on getting another neck...so, I did. I grabbed a remote filler setup to go with it.

Installed:


20160810_195136.jpg


20160815_155519.jpg

(that shot is from before running over to Home Depot to grab enough matching nuts and bolts to fully mount the filler neck)

Now, I'm off for a couple of weeks (burning vacation time). The wife and kids are all working, and I couldn't go on the long distance (motorcycle) road trip that I'd planned, so I'm screwing around with the Cow again :D

The biggest problem I've had with the cage is head room (surprise!). I've already revamped the B pillar a bit to give me some more room, and that certainly helped...but after adding some braces up top, I could hit my head on them by simply sitting upright.

20160215_165548.jpg


I sat on it for a long time, trying to think of schnazzy ways to address the headroom, but I really couldn't come up with anything that seemed to really fix the problem and was strong. I actually contemplated just lopping off the lid (again) so I could build a cage that was actually safe.

Then, it dawned on me -- turn the braces around a bit...

20160817_135400.jpg


Doing this moved the braces enough that they're not directly over the head of either seat, and gained about 4.5" of clearance between the noggin and the brace.

I think I'm finally happy (enough) with the cage and seat mounts to start the final welding.

20160818_142055.jpg



With the heat that's expected over the next few days, I probably won't be spending much time out in the garage...especially not doing any welding. I'm expecting to pick back up on Monday. In the meantime, I may throw the driver's seat back in and see if I can get some better driveshaft measurements by climbing the retaining wall in the front yard :redneck:
 
Let's see. Since I last posted an update... Sold my old house (almost two years to the date of listing it), my daughter got married (the day after closing on the sale), I helped son-in-law start a landscape and tree care business, tried to focus on buying a new home (lost out a few times and gave up, tried again, got shot down, tried again, got out bid 4 times in a row... you get the picture), got a *little* too focused on finances and credit and started drinking way more than I should, rode the motorcycle to Alaska, son-in-law goes to rehab for a coke addiction, find out first grand kid is on the way, bought a home with room for a shop.

Finally coming out of a low level mental breakdown after getting moved out of the rental and back into my own place. I've been using the Cow to move stuff around the yard (a.k.a. Playing with the Cow). I'm getting the urge to work on it again.

Might be nothing, but while I had it out in the yard moving some logs today, I noticed an odd "hopping" around 10-15mph (it's hard to get the ol' 20r going much faster than that in this yard lol) in standard 2wd high. I'm going to have to do some more "testing" to see if I can figure it out. Pretty sure it's not a slipping clutch -- it only does it with a little speed. It might just be a light ass end that I'm not used to (after 10 friggin' years) in a rough yard.

I've flexed it a bit on the logs in the yard a few times over the past few weeks. Confirmed what I already knew, but really don't want to do -- the stock fender flares need removed for tire clearance. I love the look of the stock flares on this year of 'yota :( I guess I'm just going to have to get creative if I want to keep them (or go to smaller tires -- probably not going to happen).

I was dinking around in the yard a few weeks ago, trying to balance it on a couple of parallel logs (one log under the driver's side tires, the other under the passenger). When I came down, I heard an odd clicking (while rolling forward) from what seemed to be the front driveshaft. It was also fighting me on the steering. Put it in reverse, turned the wheel, and it went away. Not sure what it was, but it hasn't done it since.

I still have some gremlins to work out after the rewire I did years and years ago. I was reminded today that the temp gauge still doesn't work (nor does the tach for that matter). The (stock) temp gauge wasn't registering anything at all (new temp sender way back when), but I could feel heat coming from the engine bay. Might just be the header, but I'm not sure. I may add an aftermarket gauge temporarily just to keep an eye on things (I did have to fix a blown head gasket on it several years ago).

More than anything, I need to buy more tube for the cage, and some plate for the front bumper (I don't want a tube bumper). I'm not happy with how the cage was turning out, and I'm too proud to go buy a pre-fab jobbie. The cage and a front bumper (combined with a few years of mental breakdown) have been my self imposed road blocks.

Oh yeah -- I still haven't ordered a driveshaft yet...and now I'm planning to swap out the spool in the back for a pair ARBs front and rear...but I'm not allowing myself to do that until I make progress on the cage and bumper.

I'm almost thinking that I need a "this thing is good enough for now, I need a light shake down to remember what the hell else I still need to do" run.
 
Ya should buzz it over and run it up my ramp and lets see if anything falls off,lol.

I might do that one of these days...after I get it running again. It stalled on me while using it out in the yard today, and refuses to start. I'm thinking the GM ignition module took a dump lol
 
I might do that one of these days...after I get it running again. It stalled on me while using it out in the yard today, and refuses to start. I'm thinking the GM ignition module took a dump lol

That would be shocking
 
The gm module failing. I used to know people that carries two spares in the glove box. HEI modules anyway.

I'm doing. Got a 4runner project to replace the truck.
 
The gm module failing. I used to know people that carries two spares in the glove box. HEI modules anyway.

I'm doing. Got a 4runner project to replace the truck.

I'd planned to pick up a spare ever since I did the conversion, but just never got around to it. Now I'll pick up a couple more to have around...at least until I manage to find time/space/$$$ to start working on shoe-horning Carhart's ol' 5VZ under the hood lol

I haven't checked yet -- you have a build thread for the 'runner?


--- Cow update ---


It's running again after (:Bonk:) swapping in a new ignition module...and fixing the battery cable that started to melt (from me using the starter+crawler to get it back into it's parking spot).

After using the receiver-mounted winch from my trailer on the back of the Cow a while back, I decided to permanently mount a winch on the back. I was at Tractor Supply day before yesterday and found one of their 4500lb ATV winches on the clearance shelf for $94 ($105 less than the new ones sitting on the shelf about 15 feet away). Yep, I snagged it.

Since I'm using the Cow to move crap around the yard these days (namely, logs and wood slabs), I'm planning on building a gin pole type of setup for the back. I've got about 30' of 2x3 (?? -- I forget exactly)x.25 rectangle tubing (courtesy my old neighbor in Redmond), so now I just need to scrounge up some heavy plate for mounting it to the truck.
 
No build thread. It's blueberry Krunch from Bodhi and then Steve bjornson.
The original build thread is on pirate still.
But it's getting a re power with a 1uz and r 151f
 

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